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Nepal Seismotectonics

One major issue addressed here is to know whether the recent great earthquakes on the MFT ruptured the surface or not. EOS confirmed with 14C dating that the rupture of the 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake (Mw 8.2) reached the surface. It is a major breakthrough as the hitherto entrenched consensus had been that the 20th century catastrophic events along the Himalayan Frontal Thrust were blind.

Detailed mapping and interpretation of uplifted terraces and trenches are in progress, and will help constrain the sizes and return times of great Holocene events, to better quantify seismic hazard in eastern Nepal.